DNS is the acronym for Domain Name System, which is the principal method computers utilize to connect with one another on the internet. If you sent an email to “[email protected]” your mail server would do a DNS lookup on “AnySite.com” so it would know to actually send your message to the mail server at “123.45.67.890”. The mail server will forward your message to the user, who is named “JaneDoe”. DNS functions in two ways: the email server that receives your message has an IP address and the email server that sends it is assigned an IP. Up until a few years ago an IP number of a sending server wasn’t that important. However, since the influx of spam, everything has changed https://www.growbots.com/blog/how-to-test-email-deliverability-and-verify-email-addresses/.
Nowadays, the majority of mail servers look up their IP addresses of the server sending the message prior to accepting the message to determine if the email originates from a dynamic or static IP address. The mail server that receives the message performs a reverse DNS lookup, which examines the IP address from which the mail is coming from in order to verify that the address is associated with the server sending the email.
If an email message claims to be sent from “YourCompany.com” the mail server will verify that the IP address actually originate from YourCompany.com. It is easy to verify this if the IP address is a static IP. An IP that is static is assigned to a specific computer and the address is always the same.
But an IP address that is dynamic changes every time a device connects with a network, or internet. It isn’t possible to do reverse DNS lookup for an IP address that is dynamic. These IP addresses can be utilized by people who have dial-up and DSL account on their personal computer. Unfortunately, they’re also utilized by spammers. Therefore, if the majority of the mail comes from an IP address that is dynamic it’s likely that the message will be delivered straight to a spam file.
If you’re sending out your marketing emails directly via your personal computer, with the email configuration offered by your Internet service provider, then you’re likely using an active IP address, with zero reverse DNS. This isn’t an issue if you’re sending only one-off mail to Aunt Betty but it could cause problems if you’re sending out a mass email to all of your client databases. If you’re using a from address like “[email protected]”, since the dynamic IP address assigned by your ISP does not belong to “YourCompany.com”, there’s a good chance your message will be rejected.
You might think you can resolve this issue simply by using “[email protected]” as your from address; unfortunately, this doesn’t always work either. To protect their customers from mail, ISPs treat bulk email differently from individual messages. In addition, because the sending IP address is in flux it’s likely that your message will be within the junk mail folder.
The best way to go about it is to make sure that your DNS entry for your website is accurate and capable of reverse lookup. Make use of your webhost’s mail server to send your marketing communications. Contact the technical department to confirm that your site and the associated email server are both running static IP addresses and have full DNS entries. While you’re there request them to establish your domain with an SPF records for the domain you’re hosting.
Making use of complete DNS entries does not ensure that your email will be delivered all the time, as there are many other factors that impact delivery. It is a step towards decreasing the chance that your email could be misinterpreted as spam.
The time is now to start: this shouldn’t require anything more than a quick phone call to the technical department of your webhost. If you’ve been a part of your provider’s email configuration, then your Webhost will help you with the right steps for creating an email application to work with the host’s email server.
